Vocabulary for Plants
1. Plants – are multicellular eukaryotes, most of which make their own food through photosynthesis and have adapted to live on land.
2. cuticle – is a waxy, waterproof layer that helps hold in moisture in plants.
3. stomata – tiny holes in the cuticle. Special cells allow stomata to close to prevent water loss, or to open to allow air to move in and out.
4. vascular system – a collection of specialized tissues that bring water and mineral nutrients up from the roots and disperse sugars down from the leaves. A vascular system allows a plant to grow higher off the ground.
5. lignin – a material which hardens the cell walls of some vascular tissues. Is responsible for the strength of wood and provides stiffness to the stems of other plants.
6. pollen grain- a two-celled structure that contains a cell that will divided to form sperm.
7. seed – a storage device for a plant embryo
8. pollination – occurs when pollen meets female reproductive parts of the same plant species.
9. gymnosperm – a seed plant whose seeds are not enclosed in fruit
10. angiosperm – a seed plant that has seeds enclosed in some type of fruit
11. cone – the reproductive structure of most gymnosperms. It contains a hard productive scales.
12. flower – the reproductive structure of flowering plants. Flowers protect the plants gametes and fertilized eggs.
13. fruit – the mature ovary of a flower.
14. cotyledon – an embryonic leaf inside a seed.
15. monocots – flowering plants whose embryos have one seed leaf. (monocotyledons )
16. dicots – (dicotyledons) flowering plants whose embryos have two seed leaves.
17. wood – a fibrous material made up of dead cells that are part of the vascular system of some plants.
18. botany – the study of plants
19. ethnobotany – explores how people in different cultures use plants.
20. pharmacology – the study of drugs and their effects on the body
21. alkaloid – potent plant chemicals that contain nitrogen.
22. Geotropism (gravitropism): roots growing downward, cotyledons growing upward.

23. Phototropism: growth of organisms in response to light (to or from)
24. Thigmotropism: movement in which plant moves or grows in response to touch/contact stimulus. Ex.
Vines
25. Nastic movement: response of plants parts that is independent of direction of external stimulus Ex.
Opening of buds by alteration in light intensity.
Opening of a rose bud